Jang Hyuk

This drama is all about understatement (the picture above is very misleading… basically the little girl and grandpa are the only happy souls in the show). It’s almost entirely set on a small island, the slow pace of life mirrored in the slow pace of the story unfolding.

Plot: A young girl is desperately in love with her childhood sweetheart, who thwarts her to go off in pursuit of bigger ambitions. But not before knocking her up, unbeknownst to him. She raises the child the best she can, along with her elderly grandfather who suffers from dementia. When her daughter is about eight years old, she’s in a car accident – and due to a mix up at the hospital, given contaminated blood and ends up with HIV. The doctor responsible dies, but not before sending her doctor boyfriend off on a mission to apologize to the child and mother for her. A series of events bring the doctor and the long-lost father of the child back to the island at the same time – and basically… it’s a slow, atmospheric WWIII of the Heart, with the adorable little girl at the center.

It’s a decent story about responsibilities and insecurities and families and communities. You’ll come to know the small town and all the people in it as if you moved in, too. I didn’t love it. I’m not sure I even liked it. The whole thing was a dreary mess, honestly… sort of washed out and pitiful instead of intense and heartbreaking. I prefer my melodramas to be the latter.

Overall Rating – 7/10. Small Town Life is Highly Contagious, Take Precautions.

This is a romantic comedy that stays pure to its genre. It’s stupidly, adorably romantic and really, really funny. It has the same zany humor, in many respects, as The Greatest Love and The Master’s Sun (though not quite as great as either). In other words, there’s one weirdo and one normal person trying to figure out how to navigate life with weirdo in tow. The weirdo in Fated to Love You is the male lead, played by Jang Hyuk.

Try to make it through the opening scene of this drama… which is incredibly awkward and the reason I turned off this show the first time I tried to watch it several years ago. Let us all collectively wipe the shampoo commercial from our memories. It serves its purpose for introducing the character, his abs, his bizarre personality, and the product that made his family fortune, but it’s just… awkward. The pacing is off. It actually made me feel uncomfortable – both times I watched it. BUT… stick to it. If you do, you will be richly rewarded with screwball comedy and a refreshingly different (and simple) romance.